“Mia will get this done. You just keep tracking Evana.”
“Of course.”
One of the other agents in the corner of the room slammed his fist down on the table and shouted a few choice words.
“What is it?” Hawk asked.
“She’s been streaming this entire thing live,” the agent said.
“Who?” Hawk asked.
“Evana Bahar.”
* * *
EVANA SMILED AT Farzaad Shirazi and offered her hand.
“Come on,” she said. “This is no time to worry about the past. We need to disappear and fast.”
Shirazi didn’t move. “We won’t be able to outrun them.”
“Why?”
“Because they put a tracker in me?”
She cocked her head to one side. “Are you sure?”
“Look at this thing,” he said, pointing just behind his head.
Evana walked behind him and examined the three-inch wound at the base of his neck. Without hesitating, she whipped her knife and dug into his skin. Shirazi yelped in pain as he moved away from her.
“A warning would be nice,” he said.
“Since when did you know me to be nice? Now come back over here so I can pull that device out of you.”
Shirazi sighed as he turned his back toward her. Evana wasted no time in digging out the little black box about the size of her thumbnail.
“There,” she said. “That should do it.”
“That feels so much better.”
“Good,” she said. “Now you can keep up with me because we need to catch a train.”
Shirazi didn’t flinch. “Before we go anywhere, I need to know something.”
“What is it?”
“Do you still love me?”
“We can continue this discussion later,” she said. “Right now, we need to get out of this park before we’re both shot in the head by snipers and my answer wouldn’t mean anything anyway.”
Shirazi sighed. “Well, you did get me out of prison.”
“I know. Now don’t make me regret it. Let’s go.”
The duo raced through the park and vanished into a metro station. Evana handed him a metro pass.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“Just follow me.”
She led him through the turnstiles and onto a platform with northbound trains. The city’s commuters had thinned out long ago. However, a surge of customers flooded the platform a few minutes later. She glanced around to see hordes of people wearing Washington Nationals paraphernalia.
As they waited for the train, she dug into her pocket. Her hand wrapped around the cold steel of her weapon. Behind her a southbound train roared into the station. She fingered the tracker in her hand.
“Wait right here,” she said.
Shirazi only turned to watch her walk over to the arriving train and slip the tracker inside. She pulled her hood up over her head and exited on the other side. In a matter of seconds, she went up a flight of stairs and then down again before returning to the original platform. She didn’t get near Shirazi, staying far from him. She’d scouted this station so many times before that she knew exactly where every security camera was. If the FBI or the CIA was watching for her, they wouldn’t be able to see her where she was standing.
A northbound train hissed as it came to a stop in the station. She held up a finger for Shirazi, a signal she hoped he understood to mean stay. Meanwhile, she jumped on the train and raced to the door that opened in front of him.
Shirazi smiled as he recognized her and then walked toward her. But just as he did, the doors started the close.
Evana, standing just inside the train, whipped out her gun with the silencer attached. She fired two shots, one center mass, the other a headshot. Shirazi crumpled to the ground as the doors shut.
She didn’t flinch, a faint smile creeping around the corners of her mouth.
Now, time to even the score with President Young.
She dug the detonator out of her pocket and flipped the switch.
Goodbye, Olivia.
* * *
HAWK HOVERED OVER Mia’s shoulder as her fingers tapped out commands on the keyboard to a chaotic rhythm. He glanced at President Young, who seemed inconsolable standing in the doorway as he tried to evade the Secret Service agent guarding it.
“I want to see my daughter,” Young said. “And I want to see her right now.”
“Sir, your daughter’s life is in jeopardy right now,” an agent said.
“In jeopardy? What are you talking about?”
“Evana placed a bomb around your daughter’s neck,” the agent said, extending his arms to keep Young at bay. “And it’s not operated by a kill switch like she claimed. All she has to do is make a phone call to activate it.”
“Well, get it off of her,” Young said, swatting the man’s hands away.
Hawk approached Young to help out the agent. “Sir, we’re going to figure this out. But please calm down. Getting worked up about this isn’t going to fix anything.”
“This is your fault,” Young said. “If you’d killed Evana Bahar in Cuba, we wouldn’t be in this situation right now.”
Hawk shook his head and ignored the dig. “We’re all just trying to do the best we can right now.”
Mia interrupted the spat with a shout. “I did it. The cell tower is down, but I don’t know how much longer before it’s rebooted. Tell the bomb squad that this is their window of opportunity—and it’s not a big one.”
Agent Southorn radioed the information to the unit working on removing the device from around Olivia’s neck. Hawk hustled downstairs in time to watch a woman detach the bomb collar. She handed it to another man, who placed it in a steel box that prevented any cell signal from penetrating it.
More tears streamed down Olivia’s face as she rubbed her neck.
“You’re safe now,” Hawk said. “Let me get you to your father.”
Hawk led her up the stairs, but they didn’t even make it one flight before Young came barreling toward her. The tearful president enveloped her with a hug.
“You’re okay, honey,” he said. “You’re going to be okay.”
Olivia sobbed as she fell into his arms. “What about Penny?”
Young shook
